Way, way back in 2018 I tried making Vietnamese coffee myself. The recipe was called Spiced Vietnamese Coffee with Sweet Vanilla Cream. I loved the recipe, but it used cold brew coffee instead of hot coffee made with a traditional Vietnamese coffee filter or phin. Cold brew is good, but there is no comparison to the real deal. I’m going to try an authentic Vietnamese Yogurt Coffee (Sua Chua Cafe) recipe, and I even invested in a phin. Well, I’m not sure invested is the right word since it was only $12, but you get the idea. Anyhoo, let’s see what this recipe is like!
Vietnamese Yogurt Coffee (Sua Chua Cafe) is a tasty and unique Vietnamese drink. It has a perfect combination of sweetness and tartness with an addictive coffee aroma.
The Ingredients
This recipe doesn’t require many ingredients. It’s just ice, water, coffee, sweetened condensed milk, and Greek yogurt. I had the water and ice, so 2 down 3 to go. Not a long shopping list at all.
The blog post for this recipe was full of tips, and that included brands of coffee and sweetened condensed milk. It mentions a few Vietnamese coffees and an American coffee that’s easy to find: Cafe du Monde Coffee with Chicory. Now, I love that brand, and my usual grocery store sells a 15-ounce can for around $9.
But I wanted the real deal for this recipe, so I ordered a tin of Trung Nguyen Premium Blend Coffee when I ordered the phin. A 15-ounce can was $11, so not much more than the Cafe du Monde.
I bought the sweetened condensed milk locally. Carnation brand was $3.39 for a 14-ounce can. And last, a 32-ounce container of Cabot Plain Greek Yogurt was $4.99.
The Process
Although I have never used a phin to brew coffee, this recipe wasn’t difficult at all. I began with the coffee since it takes the longest to make.
I simply filled the phin with ground coffee, gently twisted down the filter, and balanced it on a small glass. Then I added 1 tablespoon of hot water to let the coffee grounds bloom for 20 seconds. Then I poured in the rest of the water, added the top, and let the coffee drip into the glass.
While I waited for the coffee to brew, I mixed up the Greek yogurt and sweetened condensed milk. That was quick and easy to do in a minute or two.
The coffee was still dripping, and I expected it to take 4 minutes or so. Mine ended up taking more like 6 minutes. I think I twisted the inner filter down too much. I did experiment with it over the next few days, and my coffee brewed faster with a very gentle twist of the filter.
At last, the coffee was ready, and I assembled my Vietnamese Yogurt Coffee (Sua Chua Cafe). This recipe makes 3 servings, so I had already put about 1/3 of the yogurt mixture into a 16-ounce glass. I assumed the coffee would also be divided the same, but there just wasn’t very much of it. It took 1/4 cup of water to brew it, and I’m sure some ended up soaked into the coffee grounds.
After a little deliberation, I ended up using all of the coffee for a single serving. It was strong coffee, but I only had a couple of teaspoons of it. The coffee melted the ice as I stirred, and I ended up with a creamy dreamy coffee treat.
Timing
This recipe is a quick one! It lists 5 minutes to prep, 5 minutes to cook, and 10 minutes total. I came in at exactly that even though my coffee took longer to brew than what the instructions said. I love that my results matched what I expected! And I love that this is something I can do in the morning for a quick treat with caffeine all in one.
 was wonderful! The yogurt added some tanginess and made it almost like a milkshake or smoothie.){kind=link}